Less of Nones

Jesus is alive and He is alive in the hearts of His people; His Word is alive, and He desires for those
who call on His name to live the Word, so that Christ may be seen in us. 1st Peter 2 states:
4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious,
5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

We are living stones - made alive by the power of God, and we can reflect on how we can appropriate that power to carry out the mission to which He has called us.  The Church, because Jesus is alive, can be a living organism that God uses to change hearts and touch lives, and because He is active, we can see the active work of God in saving souls and transforming lives.  From generation to generation, the Church has the mandate to survive and the potential to thrive.

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God has established His Church, and He is at work through His people to manifest His love and truth
to a world that needs a Savior. Ephesians 2 describes His work:
19 Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God,
20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone,
21 in whom the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord,
22 in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.

For years, we have been talking about the rise in the religious "nones," or those who do not claim a particular religious affiliation, especially among the Millennial generation.  A ChristianHeadlines.com article says:

Since the 1990’s, a growing population of Millennials have identified as “nones,” meaning that they claim no religious affiliation. Over 30% of this age group find churches distrustful and religion worthless. But recent data shows that this trend may actually be slowing down.

“Okay, this is kind of a big deal,” tweeted Ryan Burge of the Religion in Public blog. “The growth of the ‘nones’ may actually be slowing or possibly even slightly reversing itself …”

The Christian Headlines article points out that, "Every generation since the Baby Boomers has become less involved in religion." But, regarding Gen Z, those born in 1995 and afterward, "recent data shows this may not be the case. With Paul A. Djupe, Burge analyzed several polls to reveal that Gen Zers weren’t anymore opposed to religion than Millennials. The trend shows that 'nones' may be tapering off or even fallen behind."

Burge and Djupe write on the Religion in Public blog regarding the "religiously unaffiliated:"

The lesson is clear – the rate has drastically increased with each generation through to Millennials and has since slowed so that Gen Z is so far no more unaffiliated than Millennials. In 2018, 42.8% of Millennials were nones (combining atheists, agnostics, and those ‘nothing in particular’), while 42.9% of Gen Zers were nones.

This is based on the 2018 Cooperative Congressional Election Study.   Burge and Djupe do point out: "These results are only suggestive. Gen Z is still very young – only a few have graduated from college at this point and may be gaining distance from their parents and religious institutions. However, the college years are when we tend to find religious socialization gaps..., so maybe these early estimates are sending a true signal. Only time will tell, though the general population rate of the religiously unaffiliated will continue to climb to meet the younger generations."

They go on to say:

The upshot is that the population rate of the religious unaffiliated is at least leveling off and may be contracting. That is the remarkable conclusion reached with data from 4 years of PRRI’s American Values Atlas based on hundreds of thousands of interviews.

Christian Headlines summarizes some possible reasons why, based on the blog:

One view is that diversification in America is threatening people enough to drive them back into churches. Another is that “organized religion has been shedding marginal identifiers for several decades.”

As Burge and Djupe relate, "As the social desirability of being religion [sic] has eroded, people have stopped identifying just to seem respectable."

I think something we can keep in mind is that we can beware of proclamations of the death of organized religion.  Religion is baked in to the foundations of American government and is still valid as an institution that promotes morality and the common good.  Furthermore, we have to look at the active nature of Christianity in our world today.

God is doing amazing things and people are coming into a knowledge of Him.  It's easy to get caught up in differences over doctrine or approach to some issues, which are important, but we also have to make sure that we are focusing on and praying for the mission, being enthusiastic participants in what He is doing and wants to do.  We can identify that He is moving, even among younger generations.  I would also submit that He is doing so outside of some of the traditional religious structures, which may explain why the number of "nones" seems to have been growing - it may not indicate a departure from faith, but a practice of faith in churches that may not be considered mainstream, even though they are Biblical, as in non-denominational bodies.